Goals for 2024

I've always written a post about goals for the new year on the first of the year, but time totally got away from me last month. (I don't like saying "New Year's Resolutions" because it sounds corny, but that's essentially what I do every January.) I honestly wasn't even sure what goals I was going to focus on this year. I like to try to learn from each year--what worked, what didn't, why it didn't, etc.

First, here is a look at how I did on last year's goals...

1. Get my weight back into my maintenance range of 125-135.

Haha! I'm in the same boat this year. I did, in fact, get back into my maintenance range and was at about 130 pounds for a long time until a few months ago--I was so sure I'd figured out how to stay there. But just like the end of 2022, I gained about 15 pounds. I've thought about changing my maintenance range, but I just don't feel physically comfortable when my weight gets to the upper 130's. I'm curious how things will go this year.

2. Run 500 miles (cumulative, of course).

How did I forget about this one?! I just looked at last year's post and this was written on there. I honestly do not remember writing it. Needless to say, I did not reach this goal--I only ran about 78 miles. However, I did start a daily running habit and I'm currently on a streak of 126 days. I only run a lap around my block (0.4 miles), but my aim was to build a daily habit. Even though I didn't hit 500 miles (or even 20% of that, haha), I'm very happy with the habit I've developed.

3. Complete one crafting project per month.

I may or may not have completed this. I do a lot of crafting, and I've been especially into sewing this year. I didn't keep track of what I was doing through the year, so I'm not sure if I hit this goal.

4. Expand my vocabulary.

I started this one by learning one new word each week, but I found myself completely forgetting about it. So, I decided to start learning Spanish on Duolingo instead. I do at least one lesson a day, and I'm on day 221 right now. It's kind of crazy when I think of how much I've learned in such a short time!

Despite not really hitting those goals last year, I am not even the slightest bit upset about it. The year 2023 was a crazy year and not in a good way. Just surviving was good enough for me ;)

I've decided to try a different approach with goals this year. I'm only going to have ONE goal and I'm going to put my focus on that one goal instead of several. I think having a solitary goal will make me more likely to achieve it. I'm still going to work on other things, as I always am, but I've narrowed down my list to just one.

Eat more vegetables.

So simple! Right? I've been vegan for almost two years now and my diet has gotten so much healthier. However, I still don't eat the recommended amount of vegetables each day. The more I learn about how diet affects health, the more I want to eat healthy. And vegetables are the healthiest food there is!

It's kind of funny--the one vegetable that my entire family likes is Brussels sprouts!

I know that the word "more" isn't specific, but I wrote it that way on purpose. I don't want to put a number on it because I don't want to measure out vegetables or have to hit specific numbers for variety or anything like that.

I've *really* liked reading and listening to "How Not To Die" by Dr. Michael Greger. He is an expert on nutrition and passionate about using food to prevent and even cure disease. Yes, those "experts" are a dime a dozen these days, but one thing that makes him stand out from the rest: He so badly wants to teach people about using food as nutrition that he donates every cent from his book sales and business to charity. His website is non-profit. He doesn't have any sponsors or ads on his site or anything that would suggest a hidden agenda. He's written thousands of articles with all of the studies to back up his research. He doesn't push products and he publishes only facts (backed by research). If there was ever an expert to trust in the diet industry, it's him (in my opinion).

He has a list of what he calls the "Daily Dozen"--a checklist of 12 things we should try to fit into our diet each day. It looks overwhelming when you see the list, but he said not to aim for perfection--it's just a guide to help make better choices. You can actually download the app with the checklist--it's free and there are no ads!--but here is the list (you should be able to click it to make it bigger):

I was surprised to see that I already get a lot of those things every day already. The missing ones are vegetables! To try to get more veggies this year, I'm going to do my best to follow this guideline for the Daily Dozen. That means eating leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, and other vegetables daily.

I started working on this last week and I'm inspired to keep going. There are a lot of vegetables that I like, but I don't cook them often because I'm the only one in my house who likes them. Jerry will try anything I make and he never ever complains, but I feel guilty making food that I "know" he won't like. He's always telling me to just cook whatever sounds good to me and he'll eat it. I try to do this, but I just feel too bad.

Dr. Gregor writes about how your tastebuds change as you change your diet (something I've noticed many times over the years) and so Jerry and I made a two-week challenge for ourselves. It doesn't sound like much of a sacrifice on my part, but I promise you it is HARD for me--I have to cook meals that sound good to me but that I "know" Jerry won't like. (I put that in quotes because we don't actually know if he'll like it or not.) And in return, he's going to eat only whole foods (including the meals I make) to see if his tastebuds start to change.

We only started this yesterday, but it's been interesting. While I have anxiety over it, Jerry is excited about it, hahaha. I made sweet potato taco bowls yesterday--roasted sweet potatoes with black beans and corn, taco seasonings, quinoa with lime, and a spicy cashew cream sauce. It sounded heavenly to me! But I would never have made that because it's not at all something Jerry would choose.

He has also promised to be completely honest about what he thinks of the dinners I make. I don't want him to tell me he likes something if he really doesn't. I was very surprised at how much he liked the taco bowls yesterday! He said it's something he'd definitely eat again.

The vegetables that I'm excited about eating are sweet potatoes, cauliflower, and mushrooms. If I can find a mushroom dish that Jerry likes, I'll be so happy! I want to make it clear that this wasn't my idea--Jerry is actually pretty excited about doing this challenge.

Anyway, I've been working on the daily dozen (and I love that I'm not striving to have a perfect checklist every day). It's only been about a week, but I feel good about it. Maybe by the end of 2024, I'll be able to tick all the marks on the checklist!

Continue Reading...

Three Things Thursday: Media

I used to write posts called "What I'm Reading, Watching, and Listening To" and I really liked them because readers would comment with suggestions of other books/shows/podcasts/etc. that I might want to check out. I've found some of my favorite media that way!

Last summer, I had so much going on. I literally had not read a full book since March, and before that it was November. I do tend to go through phases where I read a lot--several books in a row--and then I won't pick up a book for months. My head just hasn't been in it. Until now.

So, I thought I'd do my "three things" today about what I'm reading, watching, and listening to...

1) Reading

I happened upon this book when I looked up Oprah on Instagram a while ago because one of the kids' friends didn't know who she was and it made me feel ancient. But when I looked her up, her latest post was where she introduced a book for her book club: Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingslover.

Oprah's book club was how I'd discovered The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett--which is my favorite book of all time. There were a couple of other books she'd suggested over the years that made it to my top favorites, too. When she posted about Demon Copperhead, I was intrigued. It's an epic, which I love, and even better, a coming-of-age novel.

I'm not done with it yet, so I can't say whether I recommend it; but so far, I love it!

This is the description from the publisher:

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

I've reached the point in the book where I just want to keep reading and not stop until I'm done. There are little hints here and there of what's to come later, and it makes me very curious. It's written in first person, and Damon (the main character, who begins the narrative at age 10) will say something interesting, followed by "...but that's a story that I'll tell later."

After I read this, I may go through some of Oprah's old picks for her book club, because I've really liked what I've read of her suggestions.

2) Watching

Maybe part of the reason I haven't read a book in a while is because of my obsession with the show Criminal Minds. Holy smokes. I'd seen several episodes a long time ago, but I didn't really get into it right way. Earlier this summer, I was looking for something to watch (kind of in the background) while I was working on a project. Criminal Minds has a million seasons (actually 16, but it seems to go on forever), so I picked that.

The show is a bit dramatic in the way it's structured, but once you get invested in the characters, it doesn't make any difference. And it's actually a pretty dark show when they get into some tough cases. Basically, the show is about a unit in the FBI called the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU)--a group of agents who do criminal profiling to catch serial killers. Each episode usually concerns one case, and then moves on to a different one in the next episode, but some cases are ongoing throughout the season.

I got SO hooked on it! I absolutely love the characters, who come and go through the seasons. My very favorites are Spencer and Penelope. I just finished the most recent season, which is why I decided to dust off my Kindle and finally read Demon Copperhead.

3) Listening To

I've written about my favorite podcasts several times, and the list doesn't change very much. My go-to favorites are still This Is Actually Happening, Sword & Scale, True Crime All The Time, and Stuff You Should Know. Oh, and Beautiful/Anonymous. While a lot of people listen to music, I like listening to podcasts and audiobooks.

Branching out from my usual and familiar sort of podcasts, I started listening to one called Feeling Good Podcasts with David D. Burns, M.D. I actually looked him up after my psychiatrist recommended a book called When Panic Attacks (written by Burns). I started reading the book but when I got to the "homework" part, I was kind of stumped in applying it to my life because my anxiety is so generalized.

However, when I found the podcast, I discovered all sorts of great mental health info.

Burns is a psychiatrist who has studied in depth about the effectiveness of medications for mental illness like depression and anxiety, and how it compares to therapy (both alone and/or with medication). He's written several books that focus on how his research has helped him develop ideal cognitive therapy approaches.

Aside from that, I just like listening to it because the episodes are full of helpful techniques we can use on our own to help with depression and anxiety (there are episodes about other mental illnesses as well, but a lot of the focus is on those).

I like to listen to it while I'm falling asleep; not because it's boring, but because it helps me to feel good. Haha, I just typed that and then realized that "Feeling Good" is literally the name of the podcast. Well, I can attest to that! It definitely makes me feel good and hopeful and motivated to work on emotions I'm going through.

---

And there you have it! I'm hoping that I'll continue to read more after I'm done with this book, so if you have more suggestions, please feel free to share them.

Continue Reading...

Nostalgic Excitement

I honestly can't remember the last time I went to the movie theater. Okay, wait--I just looked back in my blog (one of the things that is helpful about writing daily) and it was in October 2019 when Jerry and I went to see Friends. They were showing four episodes of the TV show Friends on the big screen, and being huge Friends fans, of course we went!

Then the pandemic happened and the next thing I know, it's been almost four years since the last time I went to the movies. (Feel free to correct me if I'm remembering wrong.)

Anyway, I saw something on Facebook yesterday that made me so excited! I don't know why I was targeted for a particular sponsored post (maybe because I mentioned this book a couple of times 100 years ago on my blog) but I am so glad I happened to see it yesterday... one of my very very favorite childhood books is a movie that will be released in theaters this month!

Does anyone remember the book "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." by Judy Blume? I probably read that book at least 50 times between the ages of 11 and 13. 

It was published in 1970; I was born in 1982 and it was still a well-known, well-received book. I'm actually very surprised that the book wasn't made into a movie already.

Several years ago, I looked it up on Amazon and saw that it had been revised and updated, which bummed me out because I wanted to read the same edition I read as a pre-teen. And then it was like God *was* there, because at a garage sale, I happened to find the 1978 copy I knew and loved.

When I bought a Kindle Paperwhite in 2017(?) I got rid of almost all of the actual physical books I owned--it freed up so much space. However, I saved the ones that were special to me--books that had been signed, were gifted to me in a meaningful way, or good reference books for things like running--and, of course, "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." That is how much I love this book.

Considering most of the people that read my blog are middle-aged women, I wouldn't be surprised if many have read it and loved it as well. It's a coming-of-age book (very much targeted to preteen girls) about all of the things that were going on my own life at the time--bras and periods and boys and general self-awkwardness.

I am super excited to see the movie, even though I'm guessing it's the "revised and updated" version of the copy I love. I really hope that it sticks to the original, taking place in the 1960s, but regardless--I want to see it. Jerry even said he would go with me, hahaha. (That is true love right there.)

I haven't read anything about the movie and I didn't watch the trailer or even look at the cast. I just read that it's being released in theaters on April 28th. I'm choosing not to learn anything about it because I want to stay hopeful that I will love it--if I do, it'll be a nice surprise.

I pulled out my 1978 copy of the book last night so that I can read it again before going to see the movie. The price listed on the book made me laugh--$1.25! (That is the original price, not what I paid at a garage sale--which was probably a quarter.)

Now, it's a rainy, windy Sunday evening, and it's the perfect weather to get cozy in my pajamas and curl up with some tea and read "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." I never expected that this would be my idea of a fun Saturday night, but there honestly isn't anything I'd rather be doing. I didn't read this copy after buying it at a garage sale, so I can't remember the last time I read the book. I'm sure once I start, the nostalgia will hit me ;) 

Anyone else excited about this movie? Or just love the book in general?

Continue Reading...

Books I Read in 2022

Ever since a friend pointed out to me that I start a lot of my posts explaining that it's not going to be very interesting, I've made a conscious effort not to do that. But I really do feel like I'm doing you a disservice by not including that disclaimer on this post, haha. As you can tell from the title, this post is just a list of the books I read in 2022.

I wrote a post like this last year and it was nice to have all the books listed in one place, including links to my book reviews, so that I could go back and check that out. I forget about a lot of the books I read! I do keep track of books on Goodreads, but I find it easier to see it all laid out on a blog post.

I didn't do many book reviews last year and now I wish I had. I did most of my reading in the first half of the year; I didn't read a single book in July or August. I binge-read 'The Cure' and the four sequels between September and October. Then I just didn't read much after that. I really hope to get back into reading this winter. 

So, if you couldn't care less what books I read last year, please--by all means, skip this post ;)

(You can click on the book cover to take you to the book listed on Amazon. Links to the books are Amazon affiliate links--I don't know if I get commission for books--I kind of think not--but I'm too lazy to look that up, so I'll post this disclaimer just in case. If you purchase something through an Amazon affiliate link, I may get a small commission.)

Below all of the book covers, there is a list and my star rating--1-5 stars. I would have liked to put that under each cover, but when I tried, it really messed up the format of the page. So I had to do it this way.

   

   

  

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

'The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir' by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich ★★★★☆
'Never Saw Me Coming' by Vera Kurian ★★★★☆
'The Lobotomist's Wife' by Samantha Greene Woodruff ★★★☆☆
'Rock Paper Scissors' by Alice Feeney ★★★★☆
'The Wrong Family' by Terryn Fisher  ★★★★☆
'Such a Quiet Place' by Megan Miranda ★☆☆☆☆
'The Woman in Cabin 10' by Ruth Ware ★★★★☆
'My Darling Husband' by Kimberly Belle ★★★☆☆
'Final Girls' by Riley Sager ★★★★★
'His & Hers' by Alice Feeney ★★★★☆
'Local Woman Missing' by Mary Kubica  ★★★☆☆
'False Witness' by Karin Slaughter ★★★★☆
'We All Fall Down' by Natalie D. Richards ★★☆☆☆
'Delirium' from the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver ★★★★★
'Five Total Strangers' by Natalie D. Richards ★★★☆☆
'The Upside of Falling' by Alex Light  ★★★★☆
'Hannah' from the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver ★★☆☆☆
'Pandemonium' from the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver  ★★★★☆
'Requiem' from the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver ★★★☆☆
'The Cure' from the The Cure series by K.A. Riley ★★★★☆
'Awaken' from the The Cure series by K.A. Riley  ★★★☆☆
'Ascend' from the The Cure series by K.A. Riley ★★★☆☆
'Fallen' from the The Cure series by K.A. Riley ★★★☆☆
'Reign' from the The Cure series by K.A. Riley ★★★☆☆
'Never Lie' by Freida McFadden  ★★★★☆
'The Quarry Girls' by Jess Lourey  ★★★★☆

So, that's 26 books, if I counted correctly. Not too bad! It's amazing how little I used to read before getting my Kindle Paperwhite. Clearly, I was into the young adult dystopian books last year, haha. Looking at this list, the most memorable ones are:

'The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir' - I really liked this book partly because of the format. It's written as a memoir, but the author tells a story inside of it. (I was very confused just now while reading the Amazon description of the book because it uses the word "they" and I was struggling to remember who "they" are. Then I realized the description is using "they" as the pronoun for the author. I'm old fashioned, and I think I'll always have a hard time getting used to the plural pronouns used for a singular person; so, in case the description is confusing to anyone else, I wanted to mention it. The book is not written this way.)

The memoir part is the author's time spent studying a really horrible case of the murder of a child, and the author--a lawyer--writes the story of that case along with how the case affected their life. I could have sworn I wrote about it already, but I can't find it now! Story of my life--I spend more time looking for things than pretty much anything else, haha. 

'The Wrong Family' - I'm not sure what I liked so much about this. I think it's probably that it's unlike all of the typical psychological thrillers that have been trendy the past eight years or so. It doesn't follow the "The girl in/on/around/behind/above the train/street/window/corner/etc" trope. (I'm not saying I don't like those, because I've read them all and even watched the fun parody on Netflix, "The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window".)

'The Wrong Family' has a storyline that I've never read before and it was refreshing. I can't even write about it because it will spoil it--yes, even from the very beginning. If you're into psychological thrillers, check this one out for sure!

'Delirium' - I will never tire of young adult dystopia. 

'The Cure' - Same.

'The Quarry Girls' - This was a good mystery that teases you in the very beginning that the main characters--a group of teen girls--don't get the chance to grow up together because of this particular summer. Girls are going missing in their small hometown, and that little teaser gives you a sense of dread through the whole book, hoping that it isn't true. This one was good--it had me questioning quite a bit and while I figured out a lot of the mystery on my own, I had a hard time figuring out how it all fit together until the very end. 

Anyone read any good books lately? Please share! I'm always looking for suggestions. You can tell by my list that I like thrillers and young adult dystopia ;)  Interestingly, though, my Top 10 All-Time Favorites don't include more than a couple of those. My favorites list is full of books that I just found powerful and/or very memorable.

I don't log into Goodreads very often because my Kindle automatically saves the books I read to Goodreads for me, but if you'd like to find me on there, here is the link. 

Continue Reading...